


Reminiscence

by apprepuff



Category: The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: Gen, I started this at like 1 AM, Jane is dead party, Road Trip, Sarah Lives (Walking Dead: All That Remains), Storytime, aj is also there but he’s only mentioned like four times, but sarah is living for it, clementine is asleep the entire time, feel free to read this as ship tho, kenny shit-talks dead people, like seriously kenny does not shut up, this was supposed to be a shipfic but ended up just being platonic-fluffy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-04
Updated: 2019-10-04
Packaged: 2020-11-23 07:17:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20888243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apprepuff/pseuds/apprepuff
Summary: Kenny and Sarah bond over stories during the long drive to find someplace better.





	Reminiscence

**Author's Note:**

> enjoy this lil oneshot from my Sarah Lives AU of kenny telling sarah his favourite story from his old group as i disappear into the void to write more rarepairs ;P
> 
> edit: okay not so little anymore because i accidentally doubled the wordcount while i was editing but still enjoy

Sarah stared out of the car window as they drove down the seemingly endless icy terrain, hearing snow crunch under tires and watching frozen walkers fly by like passing road signs. Snowflakes fell outside, some landing on the window and melting right after. It was a rule that she and her friends had agreed on that the car windows were to stay closed at all times, but Sarah missed riding down highways with her father, with the windows rolled down and the wind messing up her hair, laughing and enjoying the moment as she breathed in the fresh air.

That was all gone now. No use in wishing.

Behind her, she could hear Clementine’s soft breathing, and the softer breathing of infant AJ. The two were asleep in the backseat of the truck, therefore Sarah had taken shotgun to give them more room. They’d been asleep for around three hours now.

Sarah wondered what kinds of dreams babies have. Do they dream of food? Of safety? Of their parents? Can a baby whose parents died before they learned to recognize faces even dream of their parents?

The girl patted the plush seat under her to the tune of a song she had stuck in her head as she turned her attention back to the window, trying to stim without being too noticeable. Jane had been sitting in shotgun less than a month earlier... now she was dead, and Sarah had her spot. It was funny, how minor and unimportant that moment had seemed at the time — listening to Kenny and Jane argue as Kenny swerved to avoid walkers, Jane held baby AJ, and Sarah stroked the unconscious Clementine’s head that lay in her lap in an affectionate gesture to the injured girl, but thinking back on it now that Jane was gone felt... weird.

Sarah had never liked Jane that much, and Jane had never liked Sarah, either. The woman had tried to convince Clementine to leave her for the walkers back in the mobile home, and tried to get out of saving her when she was pinned underneath a pile of rubble after the observation deck gave way before she could run — Sarah was forever grateful for Clementine, who risked her life when she jumped down to save her friend.

Sarah scowled to herself at the memory of being trapped under what was left of the deck, terrified and screaming, as Jane gave minimal effort to get her free. The loner surely would have left her to die if Clementine hadn’t stepped in. After all, Jane had never been shy about her preference for Clementine, as the girl was more like her — losing Sarah would have been a net gain in her book. The teen would often hear Jane bad-mouth her to the younger girl, telling her that Sarah was going to die sooner than later.

_«Well, the joke’s on her. She’s dead, and I’m not.»_

The truck jolted suddenly, abruptly cutting off Sarah’s train of thought, and the girl yelped in surprise.

“Easy, just a bump. Nothin’ to be scared of, we’re not gonna crash.”

Sarah turned her attention to Kenny, her and Clementine’s guardian, who wore a teasing smile on his face. She laughed a bit, embarrassed. “Yeah.. just a bump. Sorry.”

“Ah, it’s fine. Clem used to get scared like that too,” Kenny remarked, turning his attention back to the road and tapping a tune that the teen almost recognized on the steering wheel.

Sarah tilted her head. She turned to look at Clementine — still sprawled out across the backseat, sleeping peacefully, AJ in her arms like a teddy bear.

Clementine had always been braver than Sarah — which made sense, as Clem had grown up in a much harsher environment than the older girl, but it wowed Sarah nonetheless.

Clementine didn’t retract in fear when she saw a walker, she killed or snuck past it and moved on. She had learned how to shoot a handgun (and with remarkable aim, at that), killed her first walker, and killed her first human all before she was ten years old. She had seen her own parents as walkers. She had even snuck out of a locked shed and convinced both Alvin and Sarah herself to help her find the supplies to fix her damaged arm, even after Carlos had explicitly commanded her to stay put until morning, _and_ after he had insistently told Sarah not to speak to this strange new girl.

Sarah could hardly believe that a girl that strong could be scared by a bump in the road.

“She did?”

“Yeah, she did. Way back when we were gettin’ the hell out of Macon in an RV. Every time I hit a pothole or somethin’ that I didn’t see comin’, I could hear her squeal,” Kenny laughed. “Lee had to reassure her every time that no, we did not run over an animal, and no, we were not going to get a flat tire and get stranded on the side of the road.”

In a change of tone, Kenny sighed. “Those days seem so far away now.”

Hoping to change the subject as to lift her guardian’s spirits — and maybe even get another story out of the old man, if she was lucky — Sarah focused on one of the details that Kenny had mentioned. “Why were you leaving Macon?”

“That’s a long story.”

“The ride’s been quiet for hours, Kenny. A long story is just what I want to hear.”

The man chuckled, which excited the teenager. “Fair enough.” He cleared his throat, and Sarah’s eyes sparkled, happy to get him talking.

“Well, when this whole bomb first dropped, my dysfunctional-ass group set up shop in Macon, Georgia. Specifically, in a little inn called the Travelier Motel. There were maybe ten of us, I can’t remember exactly how many, but a decently-sized group. Well, one day, months after we first settled in, some shitbird teenager named Ben fucked with some bandits.”

Sarah propped her chin up on her elbow, interested. She had heard of this “Ben” character before, as Clementine would often reference him in an affectionate manner. She had described Ben to Sarah as being rather similar to Nick — he had an unlucky streak, but he wanted only the best for everyone. But Clem had also mentioned several times that he and Kenny had been far from friends.

“For a bit of context, there used to be this group of bandits that set up shop at this huge supermarket, Save-Lots. Stereotypical as hell, ski masks, all that shit. Ruthless fuckers, too, sure as hell weren’t above shooting their own over petty arguments. They actually shot one of my friends a few weeks before this happened.”

Sarah was confused, and a little sad. How could someone turn on their own group members over something as simple as a disagreement? Surely any good group should care for each other, no matter what. She shook away the thought and continued listening to the story.

“Anyway, these bandits told this kid that they had one of his friends — which was bullshit, by the way — and that they would kill him if Ben didn’t give ‘em what they wanted, which was supplies. So, the kid handed over paper bags full of medicine, hidden in a vent by the side of the motel and marked with a big X drawn in pink chalk. While that was a stupid fucking decision that caused us more harm than good, I have to be impressed at how the clever little bastard managed to do it for so long.”

“How’d he do it?”

“He took from Lilly’s personal stash, not the group’s general stash, therefore our daily inventory checks wouldn’t bring up anything out of the ordinary. I have no idea how he even found out that she had a little med pocket of her own in the first place. Sneaky little shit was probably snooping around in the middle of the night — then again, I can’t blame him. I always hated Lilly, anyway.”

“Who’s Lilly?” Sarah asked. She’d heard Clementine mention the name before as well, usually in passing or to Kenny while they talked about their old group.

When the teen had asked about her, Clem had told her “Basically, imagine Jane with long hair, a racist dad, and instead of wanting to be alone all the time, wanting to control everyone else. That was Lilly.”

Sarah had gotten a pretty vivid mental image just from that, but was still interested in hearing Kenny’s recollection of her.

“Lilly Caul. Old group member back in Macon. Ex-military and a _total_ bitch, only thought about herself and her asshole of a father. Saw herself as the “leader”, which was absolute bullshit. Lee was more of a leader than she could have ever hoped to be.”

Kenny fell silent for a moment, remembering his best friend, and Sarah put a comforting hand on his arm.

From what Clementine had told her, which was a lot, Lee had been a good man. He had protected and loved Clem until his final breath, which had inspired her to pay it forward with Sarah.

Clem had taught the teen how to shoot exactly like Lee had taught her years before. She had calmed Sarah down during every panic attack, and risked her life to save her when Jane didn’t want to. Clementine had watched the older girl’s back everywhere they went — from the little cabin in the woods, where they had met, all the way to the abandoned parking lot where Kenny had managed to fix up the truck that they were riding in right now.

Sarah had been blessed with her best friend, the child who had saved her life, all because a stranger found the girl alone when she was eight years old, and decided to protect her.

Sarah had never met this man, but she owed him everything.

“I’m sorry about Lee,” the teenager told her guardian quietly. “Clem said he was amazing.”

“She was damn right,” Kenny responded, chuckling sadly. “Christ, it’s been years, but I can still remember almost every little detail about him. He was one of those people that just sticks with ya, y’know?”

Sarah nodded, a mix of fondness and sadness in her eyes. “Those people are always the ones you lose too soon.”

Kenny hummed in agreement, then realized something, and looked a little embarrassed. “I was, uh... supposed to be telling a story, wasn’t I?”

After a moment of processing his words, Sarah laughed. “Yeah, I think so. But don’t worry about it, I always get sidetracked talking about my friends, too. And Clem said you two were really close, so I can’t blame you for getting distracted.”

The older man looked at her kindly, then attempted to segue back into his story without sounding too awkward, making sure to keep his eyes on the road.

“Clem wasn’t lying when she talked about Lee. He was a good guy. Loyal, too. Always stuck by my side, no matter what. Which came in handy, considering me and that Lilly bitch I was _supposed_ to be talking about fought almost every damn day. Supplies, leadership, long-term planning, stuff like that. She was convinced that we needed one person to tell people what to do and make sure everything ran smoothly, but I thought we should all work together to make things work. Lee sided with me every time, and since most of the group trusted his judgement, that meant that Lilly was outnumbered, which pissed her off, as did everything else that ever existed.”

Sarah laughed at the jab, and Kenny thought for a moment before looking back at her. “Want me to tell you about how we made Lilly hate both of us forever?”

The teen grinned brightly, nodding excitedly. “Yes, please! I love your stories!”

She was met with a warm smile and an eyebrow raise. “Well, that makes me happy, ‘cause I love tellin’ ‘em. I’m warnin’ ya, though, this one’s a long one, and a little darker than the others.”

“I wanna hear it!!” Sarah laughed.

“Well, if you say so.” The one-eyed man cleared his throat.

“One of the worst days for our group as a whole that _totally_ changed the game was when we trusted a couple brothers that came by asking for gas. Said they lived on a dairy, and needed it for their generator to power the electric fence that guarded it. So, like the bunch of dumbasses that we were, we trusted these random strangers and sent Lee, Ben, this guy named Doug, and another guy, Mark, off to check it out and make sure they weren’t full of shit.”

“Let me guess, it didn’t go well?” Sarah inquired, a slight smile on her face from giggling at Kenny’s joke about his old group’s collective intelligence.

Kenny shook his head. “Nope. It absolutely did not. So Doug and Ben come back and say the strangers are offering us dinner if we can bring my wife over to help their sick cow. The group’s literally starving to death, so we leave the messenger boys to guard the motel after getting some directions. But when we get there, Mark’s barely standing, and he’s got a fuckin’ crossbow bolt four inches deep in his shoulder!”

Sarah winced, feeling pains that didn’t exist and sympathy for someone she’d never met. After a moment of looking at her, Kenny kept rambling, and she smiled a tiny bit, adjusting her sitting position to be more comfortable as he continued.

“Lee said it was bandits, so the mom of this dairy family takes our buddy inside, says she’s gonna fix him up. Lee goes off with the younger brother, fucks up a bandit camp in the woods, then comes back and hangs out in the barn with me, my family, and Clem. Oh, and the St Johns’ cow, she was there too.”

Sarah smiled at the mental image of a young Clementine petting a cow.

“So while we’re waiting for dinner to be done, me and Lee are in the barn trying to open this _huge_ door in the back that I have a bad feeling about.” Kenny gestured with his free arm to accentuate the supposed size of the door, which made Sarah giggle a bit.

“Lee distracts the older brother, but the dinner bell goes, so I go inside and make an excuse for him being late, hopin’ that he can get the damn thing open before Andy comes back and catches him in the act. When he comes in a few minutes later and looks in the dining room, he gives me this... look, and I know right away that not only did he manage to open it, but that there was somethin’ bad in there. Not only that, but even though he’s apparently been resting for hours from an injury that wasn’t even that bad, Mark isn’t at the table.”

  
“Uh oh,” Sarah chuckled nervously.

““Uh oh” is right,” Kenny replied. “So Lee goes to wash his hands, and we eat as we wait for him to come back, and everyone’s actually having a good time. Hell, I even held a conversation with Lilly without fighting. Everyone thought that we were actually getting lucky for once.”

Kenny laughed a bit as he looked down, his expression familiar, but not very easily described.“God, we were so fucking wrong.”

“Lee nearly falls down the fuckin’ stairs runnin’ down ‘em, lookin’ like he’s seen a ghost, and shouts at Clem not to eat what she’s got on her fork. Naturally, we’re all confused, and even more naturally, Lilly’s dad, Larry, is a prick to Lee about whatever he’s so shaken up about. Lee’s response to that is to tell us where the meat on our plate came from — Mark.”

The teenager choked on air, and Kenny chuckled. “You okay?”

“I was, uh.. not expecting that!” Sarah responded.

“Neither were we,” Kenny replied simply, tapping on the steering wheel again and letting out a breath that Sarah didn’t notice he was holding.

“So the St Johns try to justify murder of the innocent, all while holding us at gunpoint, and one of them actually grabs Clem’s hair, since it was a lot longer back then. I swear on my life, I have _never_ seen Lee that angry. If he hadn’t gotten the barrel of a rifle pressed against his neck, you bet your ass Andy would have been in pieces on the floor.”

“So while we’re all being held hostage, we hear what sounds like something falling down the stairs. Well what do you know, it’s Mark, with no legs, just like Lee said... God, that was the single most fucked up thing I’ve ever seen. He looked and sounded terrified, and it was clear as day that he was in so much pain. And these fuckin’ cannibals _fed us pieces of him_ without us knowing. I felt sick. I still do whenever I think back on it.”

Kenny put a hand to his forehead, and Sarah looked up at him with worry. “You can stop, if it’s a bad memory,” she assured him.

“Nah, I’m fine, kid,” the man insisted. “Just.. still not entirely over the shock, I guess. Don’t know if I’ll ever be.”

After a moment, he let out a breath and continued. “The second Lee tries to comfort his girl, Danny, the younger brother, clocks him in the face with the back of his rifle, and he’s out cold. Clem screamed, and I damn near had a heart attack. I actually thought they killed him for a second, but I saw him breathing, so that was at least comforting.”

Kenny’s tone shifted, sounding more angry. “The fuckers separate me from my family, drag the rest of us into the barn, and throw us in a fucking meat locker connected to the back room — which was creepy as fuck, by the way, just like I guessed. Blood and sharp things everywhere, and jars of things that I don’t wanna think about what they might have been.”

“Were you scared?” Sarah asked. It might have been a stupid question, but she was curious as to how honest he would be.

“Was I scared?” Kenny looked out the driver’s side window, chuckling a bit. “God damn right I was. I was more angry than scared, but Jesus Christ, the whole experience was terrifying.” He coughed a bit, refocusing on his tale.

“When Lee wakes up, we fill him in on what happened. Larry’s an asshole as usual, despite the fact that Lee just stopped all of us from eating any more than we already did, and stopped Clem from taking her first bite. But I guess karma had finally had enough of the guy, because I shit you not, less than ten seconds after Lee looked like he was starting to come up with an escape plan, Larry’s heart gave out, and he fell over like dead weight on the floor.”

Sarah’s eyes widened. “He just.. died? On the spot?”

“Yep. Heart attack, right there. Lilly was panicking and doing chest compressions, trying to wake him up, but that guy was _gone._ And as you know, if someone dies, but you don’t destroy the brain... they come back.”

The girl was incredibly invested in her protector’s story at this point. Her heart was pounding out of her chest. “Did he come back?”

“Almost. This is the part where I knew Lee would always have my back.”

Sarah leaned forward, interested.

“So this six-foot-four, three hundred pound, mid-sixties guy has a heart attack and dies, and we’re all locked in a tiny room with him. You’re smart, you probably know that if he became a walker, he’d be able to kill all of us without breaking a motherfucking sweat. I tried my hardest to tell Lilly that it was a lost cause, that we had to put him down or we were all going to die, but she wouldn’t listen, not for a goddamn second.”

Outside, Sarah saw a walker whiz by, the first one she’d seen in a while. It was much closer than the others they had driven past, mere inches from getting whacked with the driver’s side mirror. Not only that, but it had been staring directly at her. Feeling uneasy, she continued to listen.

“So I turned to Lee. He’d had my back on everything I needed up to that point, and I told him outright that I needed him right now. The thing with Lee was that he hated killing anyone. In any situation, he would always choose the most peaceful option he could think of. Even worse, Clem was right there — if he helped me, she would see everything. The girl was eight years old and already traumatized enough. Lilly was begging him to help her try to save her father, and he kept looking back and forth between me and her. I thought we were screwed. There was no way I could do this on my own.”

Kenny stopped talking for a moment, and when he spoke again, his tone changed. It sounded... fond. Grateful.

“But even though he knew there would be damage done... he still helped me.”

Sarah smiled. So did Kenny.

“I’ll spare the details about what the aftermath looked like, but basically... Lee held Lilly back, and I took a big, heavy salt brick thing and threw it down as hard as I could at Larry’s head. After the deed was done, Lee took a coin from the dead guy’s pocket and used it to unscrew the cover on a vent he noticed earlier. Clem crawled right through and opened the door from the other side. From that point on, everything else was a cakewalk by comparison. Aside from me getting shot in the side, that is.”

Sarah tilted her head. “What happened to the St Johns?”

“Left ‘em both for dead. As far as we know, they got eaten by the walkers that tore down their fence as we were leaving. But facing off with them wasn’t the hardest part. It was dealing with Lilly.”

Something clicked in Sarah’s head. “Because that Larry guy that you threw the brick on was her dad!”

“Exactly,” Kenny confirmed, sounding proud that she had been paying attention. “From that day forward, she was ten times the nightmare she used to be, and twenty times as unstable. Hated both of us, instead of just me. Lee got on her nerves before, but now she _despised_ him. Asshole or not, Larry was her dad, and she was quick to remind us of what we did to him any time another fight broke out.”

“What happened to her in the end?” Sarah inquired. Something must have happened to Lilly, as she had overheard from a past conversation between Kenny and Clementine that the woman had never made it to Savannah with them.

“Like I said, she was unstable as hell after the whole dairy thing. Three weeks later, when Ben’s little fuck up came to bite us all in the ass and we were hightailing it for Savannah, I hit a walker by accident, and we stopped so I could tug the little bastard out from under the RV. I heard some arguing, but I didn’t pay too much attention. Lilly yells something to me about a vote, I yell back to her to give me a goddamn minute to get the walker unstuck. When I finally manage to get it, I walk over and ask what the fuck’s going on, and the first thing I see is Lilly pointing her gun at Ben.”

Kenny adjusted his sitting position, looking down a bit and letting out a sad sigh.

“Remember that Doug guy I mentioned?”

“Yeah, why?” Sarah replied.

“He tried not to get involved in any fights, especially if Lilly was opposing him. He was kinda scared of her. But when she was accusing Ben of slipping medicine to the bandits, Doug defended him. Ben couldn’t stand up for himself, he was freaking out. He didn’t wanna be thrown out of the group and left on his own. He was so out of it, he didn’t even notice Lilly’s finger on the trigger. But Doug did.”

“What did he do?”

“He did the only thing he could do, which was pull the kid out of the way. I don’t know if he knew that Lilly would shoot him instead by accident, or if he thought she would just miss her shot on Ben. Either way, Lilly shot the wrong person, and Doug gave his life for that stupid kid.”

Kenny looked at the truck’s dashboard for a second, seemingly checking the fuel tank. Sarah had lost track of time, too emotionally invested in her friend’s story to tell how long he’d been talking, but she guessed that it had been a while.

The teenager cleared her throat, which caught Kenny’s attention again. “What did you do with her? Lilly, I mean?”

Kenny huffed a bit. “Left her stranded on the side of the road, like she deserved. My son was sick, and the RV was still running, so we were on a time limit, and couldn’t spend too much time in one place. I called her a murderer, but she shot right back, telling all of us that Lee killed someone, too.”

“Larry?”

“Nope. Before the world went to shit, he got convicted for accidentally killing a guy, and none of us had a clue.”

Sarah’s eyes widened again. “For real?”

“For real. He apologized later for keeping his secret from us. But he did tell us back in Macon that the drugstore we visited belonged to his parents, and that store literally had his last name on the front in big red letters, so not making that connection was on us for being stupid.”

Sarah snickered, which seemed to lighten Kenny’s mood. He sighed, putting his elbow on the driver’s side door and leaning his head on his hand. “Christ, I’m a little out of breath. Ain’t used to talkin’ that much. Sorry for goin’ on for so long.”

“Don’t worry about it. I like listening to you talk!” the girl assured him. “It’s a lot better than everything being quiet. And your stories are really interesting, even if they do get a little... sad, or dark.”

Her attempts at lifting his spirits were successful, as Kenny smiled down at her. “Y’know, I used to call Lilly the she-devil. No one else really liked that, not even Lee, but I was right, wasn’t I?”

Sarah laughed a bit. “Sure sounds like you were.”

Kenny hummed contentedly. “What about you? Got any stories of your own? I’m just as bored as you, but I need a break from talkin’ for a while.”

The girl thought for a moment, adjusting her hoodie. “Well... I do have the story of how I met my group.”

“Lay it on me.”

“Alright, storytime!” she chimed, rubbing her hands together. She cleared her throat, noticing Kenny’s affectionate smile out of the corner of her eye.

“For the first little while after the walkers came, me and my dad didn’t have the best luck. We were actually camping when everything started, and someone stole our car before we got back to it, so we didn’t have much to work with.”

“Sons of bitches,” Kenny commented. Sarah laughed and nodded.

“We had a tent that we’d sleep in, but we’d always pack it up in the morning, to make sure no one stole that too. We usually fished with sharp sticks for food, since the only real weapon we had was an army knife. We actually did pretty good surviving on our own, and we didn’t see very many walkers. When Dad learned that they could smell people, we covered our campground with pine and other stuff to hide our scent.”

The girl leaned back in her seat, remembering the time she spent at the campsite.

Burning branches they pulled off of trees to keep themselves warm. Catching fish in the nearby river during the day, and roasting them over a fire at night. Learning to move silently through bushes and tall grass in order to sneak past the monsters that roamed the forest. Almost falling asleep in their shared tent, only to hear the growling of a walker nearby, and hugging her dad’s chest tightly until the growling went away, all while he assured her that the pine would mask their scent, and that if the monster got too close, he would kill it.

It was repetitive and scary, but Sarah almost missed it. Life was simpler, easier. And her father was still there to protect her, promising that he would never leave.

“Things went on like that for a while, until we found some people by a big green semi-truck, trying to help a hurt person. I think they said that he got scratched by a walker? Whatever it was, Dad said that he was a doctor and offered to help, so they gave him their medicine and stuff to take care of their guy. Dad fixed him up, and in return, the truck people offered to bring us to their community, where they said we’d be a lot safer than we were in the forest. One of those guys was Bill.”

_“Carver,”_ Kenny mumbled angrily.

“Yep,” Sarah confirmed. “Bill helped us into the back of the truck, where they had blankets and boxes and lanterns and stuff. The ride was pretty bumpy, and it made my stomach hurt, but the people were nice, and it was a nice change of pace from walking around all day and trying not to make too much noise. It was, uh, a lot better than the truck they had when they took you with us,” the girl chuckled.

“Bet it was,” her guardian remarked. He swerved to avoid a frozen walker in front of him. Sarah heard their bags move in the backseat, and heard Clementine make a noise of protest, but that was it. When she heard something fall, the teen turned her head, and noticed that Clem’s hat had fallen off of her head and behind Kenny’s seat.

_«Eh, she can pick it up later, I can’t reach it with my seatbelt on,»_ Sarah thought to herself. She coughed a bit before continuing her story.

“When they brought us in, Bill introduced us to his guards, and mentioned that Dad patched up the walker scratch guy. They took both of us to a section with a bunch of rooms, and we put our stuff down and changed our clothes. Turns out they needed a medic, so they brought Dad to the medical wing. Bill asked if I knew how to help him, and Dad said I did, so I went along too. Our first patient was Luke, one of Bill’s friends who screwed up his leg. He was funny, and we made friends with him really fast. When it was break time, Luke introduced us to his friends — Nick, Pete, Ruth, Rebecca, Alvin, and Reggie.”

“Wait, hold on. Who’s Ruth?” Kenny interrupted.

“That was Nick’s mom, Pete’s sister. She died way before we met you.”

“Oh.” He tapped the wheel awkwardly. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Sarah hummed. “Luke’s group was really cool, and we kinda just... merged in with them. Pete was actually a guard, so we saw him a lot more than the others. We liked them, they liked us, and everything was so nice, so safe... but over time, as the community got more and more people, Bill changed, and our friends didn’t like that. He got more strict, and started putting people that misbehaved out in the yard whenever they weren’t working. He wasn’t the same man we met by the truck, not anymore.”

“Luke came to us in the medical wing one night. He’d cut his arm handling weapons. While Dad bandaged him, he asked us to run away from Howe’s with him and his friends. I was a little scared, but Dad said yes. He told me that things were getting worse here, and that running away with our friends was our best bet.”

“When night came, Pete came to our room to get us. He had his guard persona on, and a duffel bag and a rifle with him. We got our stuff, and he led us outside, where the others were waiting. I was a little confused at first, but then Nick showed me that there was a hole in the yard’s fence, and Rebecca told me that that was how we were leaving. Once we were all through, we booked it, and never looked back.”

“Shame that Carver’s buddies found that hole,” Kenny commented. “We could’ve gotten out of there way faster if they didn’t.”

“Agreed,” Sarah sighed. “For the first little while after we escaped, everyone was sad and confused. Where did we go now? Thankfully, after a few days, we found a cabin in the forest, and made it our home. The rooms were way bigger, there was a stream nearby to fish in, there were supplies in the cupboards, and it looked like it hadn’t been touched since the walkers came. We stayed there until Luke and Pete came home from an area patrol one day, Luke carrying Clem in his arms. I’m sure that she’s told you the rest of the story.”

Sarah quickly realized how long she had been talking. “Oh my god, I talked forever.. I hope I didn’t go too fast,” she told her friend apologetically.

Kenny shook his head, a soft smile on his face. “Trust me, you didn’t talk for nearly as long as I did. And I think I caught everything.”

He put a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry that we couldn’t save your group. Believe me, I wish we could have. They seemed like good people, and you don’t find a lot of those nowadays.”

Sarah sighed, remembering the fates of her friends. “Thank you,” she mumbled, looking at her feet again. Tears began to form in her eyes the more she thought about her lost loved ones.

“It’s weird, you know. You don’t think about every little second you spend with someone while they’re still alive. But once you lose them.. every moment you shared is precious, and you wish you’d had more. I remember being half-asleep, laying on Daddy’s chest while he laid on the couch, watching crime shows that he loved. I didn’t understand them, since I was what, ten? But he loved them, and I loved him, so I loved them, too.”

Kenny looked sympathetic, rubbing her shoulder and slowing down the car. “I know the feeling. I wish I’d spent more time with my family. I never thought it’d be them, you know? You never think it’ll be the people closest to you. But then, before you know it, you’re burying them. Or, even worse, putting your gun to their forehead.”

Sarah sighed, leaning back in her seat and looking at the truck’s ceiling. “Why does the world have to suck so much now?”

Despite the mood, the driver chuckled a bit. “‘Cause fate hates us, I guess.”

“Well I hate it too,” Sarah replied. She stuck her tongue out at the ceiling with an irritated “bleh”, which made her guardian laugh. She put her tongue away and smiled.

“Fate might hate us, but at least we’ve got each other, right?” she said, with a little more affection in her tone than she intended.

Thankfully, Kenny smiled.

“Yeah. As long as we stick together, we’ll be okay.”

* * *

The two continued to talk for hours, being careful not to wake the sleeping children in the backseat.

Sarah told stories from her childhood, or about the stupid things she would get up to with her friends during their time at the cabin. A notable example that Kenny enjoyed was the time when the girl took Nick up on a dare to try and catch a fish with her hands, instead of spearing it, and the many, many, _many_ failed attempts and falls into the river that followed before she actually succeeded.

Kenny told the girl a few stories about his family — mostly his son — and seemed grateful for the opportunity to share his memories of them. He also passed on stories that he had heard from Katjaa, and was delighted when Sarah enjoyed them.

Kenny even convinced the girl to rant a bit about Jane.

“I just don’t get why she hated me so much!” the girl rambled. “Like, I’m sorry I haven’t gone through as much as you, I guess?? I’m just a kid!”

“A kid with a damn good dad, too,” Kenny added. “You didn’t need to learn the stuff that she or Clem did because you had someone who did all those things for you, and his main goal was to keep your innocence intact.”

“Exactly, thank you!” Sarah exclaimed. “And she tried to make Clem hate me, too! I always heard her talking bad about me when she thought I wasn’t listening, even when Clem told her to stop!”

“She was full of shit,” the older man huffed. “Tried to bad-mouth me to Clem, too. Saying I was “unstable” or some horseshit like that.”

“What the hell? You were just trying to keep everyone safe!”

“That’s exactly what I said, but she wouldn’t have it!”

The rant session went on for a while, and Sarah had to admit, it felt good to blow off some steam. But in the middle of Kenny cursing the woman for sleeping with Luke instead of doing her job, the car started making strange noises.

“What in the..” he mumbled.

Within moments, the vehicle sputtered and slowed to a stop. Kenny sighed, and Sarah winced, looking a little nervous. “Oh, no..”

The driver hopped out of the truck with Sarah in tow, passed the girl a handgun, and popped the hood. “Cover me, okay, kid?” he told her. “Keep an eye out for any people. Don’t worry about the walkers, they’re frozen stiff. Or, at least, close to it.”

“O..Okay..” Sarah mumbled, moving her hands to hold the gun properly. It seemed heavier than the one she had found back at the cabin, probably because this one was loaded. Holding it made her nervous. “Shouldn’t I wake Clementine?”

“Let the girl sleep. Hopefully I can just fix this and we can get moving again, no waking of the Clem required.”

Sarah hummed in response before turning her attention away from Kenny, scanning the horizon anxiously and pointing her gun at anything that moved. She took a moment to be thankful for her glasses, as they allowed her to spot a few shapes moving in the far distance. But they didn’t seem to be moving towards the truck, so she returned to her paranoid scanning.

_«Probably just walkers. Or, at least, I hope they are.»_

She turned to look to her right, and saw a frozen walker about 60 feet away. From what she could make out through the snow, its jaw was torn off, so at least it was harmless, but the teenager still didn’t like how close it was. She stuck her tongue out at it. That made her feel better.

Cold winds pricked at Sarah’s skin, making the girl shiver. She wanted to just wait in the car until Kenny was finished fixing whatever had gone wrong, but she knew that she had to have his back in case someone tried to hurt him, or a walker got too close while he wasn’t looking. He looked out for her, so now was her time to look out for him.

After what seemed like hours of looking left and right, front and behind, holding her finger over the trigger and aiming at anything that moved even slightly, Kenny groaned and closed the hood.

“Busted?” Sarah asked, lowering her gun and finally letting her tense muscles rest. She looked to the right again. The jawless walker was noticeably closer now. She stepped closer to the truck, anxious.

“Yep. Engine’s fucked, nothing I can fix without the right tools,” Kenny confirmed, putting his hands in his jacket pockets to warm them. “It’s getting dark, so we can sleep in the truck tonight, but we should wake Clem to let her know.”

The teenager sighed. “Alright. Dang it.”

She hopped back into shotgun as Kenny opened the right back door, shaking Clementine’s shoulder a few times. The girl blinked awake, instinctually hugging AJ close to her. “Wha..? Kenny..?”

Kenny lowered his voice, and Sarah could hear that special softness in his tone that was only present when he spoke to Clementine. “Hey there, darlin’. Hate to break it to ya, but the engine’s broken. We’re gonna sleep in the truck tonight, but we need to keep going on foot in the morning.”

“Aw, fuck...” Clem mumbled, stretching. “Damn it... thanks for the heads up...”

“Easy, sweetie, we’ll be fine,” Kenny reassured. “We always are.”

The man took a set of window covers out of the bed of the truck and put them up, making sure to cover the windshield as well. That way, no walkers could see them through the windows. Normally, these things would be used for keeping the sun out in the summer so the car wouldn’t overheat, but there was a far better use for them now.

After putting up the covers, Kenny grabbed a few blankets from the truck bed as well, and hopped into the driver’s seat. After closing the door behind him, he pressed the button on the inside of it to lock the car. “We should be safe in here for tonight,” he told the children quietly, handing each of them a blanket.

“I hope so..” Sarah whispered.

“We’ll be fine, Sarah..” Clementine yawned, still laid down in the backseat, hugging the baby like a teddy bear once again. She noticed her hat on the floor of the truck, and reached down to grab it, placing it back on her head.

The teen didn’t answer.

Kenny adjusted his seat so it leaned back, covered himself with a blanket, and tipped his hat over his eyes. “‘Night, you two.”

“‘Night, Kenny, ‘night, Sarah..” Clementine mumbled, before drifting off again.

“Sleep well, you guys,” Sarah whispered.

The older girl attempted to get comfortable, adjusting her seat like Kenny had and laying on her back, but she couldn’t stop thinking. About where they’d go in the morning. About the stories she and Kenny had shared. About what it might have been like to be in he and Clementine’s old group.

The teenager listened to the distant growling of walkers outside as she hugged her fluffy blanket closer. It was terrifying, as it always was, but it had a strangely calming undertone tonight. Even the walkers sounded sleepy. Like they’d just let you walk on by if they saw you. She wondered if walkers still had people inside of them, and if so, did they get sleepy?

Sarah rolled over onto her side to face Kenny. He had fallen asleep already, facing her as well, with one hand on the centre console. Despite Sarita having mentioned that he snored, he was rather quiet. How long had she been awake?

Sarah impulsively reached out to put her hand on his, squeezing it gently.

“Thank you for protecting me.”

After a few moments, she sighed, moved her hand away, and closed her eyes to try and sleep.

A few minutes later, she heard movement in front of her, and felt Kenny stroke her head softly. She heard the same soft tone from earlier in his voice.

“You’re welcome.”


End file.
